London – Camden (Borough of) – Wellcome Collection
I can’t really be negative about places which don’t charge for admission, as that feels unfair. But, I really didn’t connect or engage with the Wellcome Collection at all, although I think to be fair to them, the gallery on medicine that might have interested me hasn’t re-opened yet. The staff were helpful at the entrance to the collection, although they are heavily over-staffed for the number of visitors.
The most interesting element to me was the interior design of the building. And a note on the directional arrows, they entirely confused me as they went around in circles. I think I left via the entrance door, but I have no idea as the exit just kept pointing visitors back around to where they started. It’s fair to say that I am hopeless at following directions if they’re not clear, but now the British Museum has made everything obvious, I thought I was getting there. Anyway, I digress.
I don’t have much to really write about the Being Human permanent gallery, I struggled to drag out any stories at all on anything. It was all too obscure and old-fashioned in its style for me to really engage with.
There’s a video of a McDonald’s flooding which is meant to have lots of meanings. I watched about fifteen seconds, but if anyone is enthralled by this concept, then there’s more at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsJsb2BKBLE. I’m guessing the symbolism is meant to be that McDonald’s aren’t doing enough on climate change.
These are discs which are made out of HIV positive blood. I have no idea what they’re supposed to represent, but I went to the Wellcome Collection’s web-site catalogue to find out more, but they’re not listed.
I think part of my lack of engagement is the gallery is focused on audio, and I don’t like exhibits which exclude, ideally just have both audio and text. I’m puzzled how the gallery claims they are inclusive, but there we go. It’s well-reviewed, so others liked it a lot more than I did. It was all a bit over-engineered for my liking, but maybe the Medicine Man is a bit more engaging and that re-opens in November.
